Tuesday, July 26, 2016

Tenth Sunday after Pentecost

Tenth Sunday after
Pentecost (C—Proper 12)

July 24, 2016

Text: Luke 11:1-13

“Lord, teach us to pray” (Luke 11:1;
ESV). Teach us, for we know not what or
how to pray. Our prayers are weak and
inadequate. The words of our unclean
lips and the desires of our unclean hearts are unworthy of Your divine
majesty. And when You, in Your mercy,
answer our prayer anyway, we are not pleased with Your answer. You do not do our will in heaven as it is
done on earth. And we don’t like
it. Not one bit. Therefore, You must teach us to pray. You must open our lips, that our mouths
declare Your praise. You must give us
the words. And You do. You give us Your prayer. And in that prayer is included every need of
body and soul, for time and for eternity.
By that prayer, because it is Your
prayer, Your Word, You bestow Your
gifts. You grant the faith to speak it in
confidence and receive Your answer with thanksgiving. You bring our fallen will in line with Your
holy will. You bestow Your Kingdom in
bread for the belly and Bread that is Your Body, in the forgiveness of sins and
defense against temptation and evil.
Your prayer is the perfect prayer, and You give us poor sinners to pray
it. And in it You place us before God as
our Father. Father,
You teach us to call God. As dear
children ask their dear Father. For that
is who we are, and that is who He is. Baptized
into Your death and resurrection, made one with You by water and the Word,
God’s own child, I gladly say it! Baptism
bestows the right to call God “Father,” and to address Him as little children
learning our first words. “Lord, teach us to pray.”

“Father”
is a faith word. It is the key word in
our text. It is a confession that God is
for us and not against us. It is a confession that God delights in our
prayers, loves to hear them, and will always answer them. And it is a confession that God will answer
in a way that is good for us, in such a way that His Kingdom comes and we are
saved. God is a better father than I am,
and yet I, being evil, still have some experience giving good gifts to my
children and withholding things that will hurt them. Now, there is nothing in the whole world my
children cannot ask me. That is what it
means that they are my children, and I am their father. They can ask me all their needs and desires,
and they should. And I should hear, and
I should answer. But it often happens
with children that they ask for ridiculous things, and so also it often happens
that they ask for things that will hurt them.
They’re kids! They’re very smart
kids, and they don’t want to ask for things that are ridiculous or may hurt
them. But the fact remains, I know what
is good for them, and what is bad, and they
don’t know. Because I am the father,
and they are the children. So, many
times they ask, and I say “no.” And they
don’t like that word, do they? They
think that word is bad, and that my will for them is bad, and that I’m against
them, and not for them. The truth is, though, just as I will not give
them a serpent if they ask for a fish, neither will I give them a serpent if
they ask for a serpent. Because even I,
being evil, know that will hurt them.
And if that is true for me in relation to my children, how much more
will our heavenly Father withhold what is harmful (or just ridiculous), and
instead give the Holy Spirit, faith, the very Kingdom, and every good gift to
those who ask Him?

We’re
the kids, guys! Our Father knows, and we
do not know, what is good and what is evil.
Adam and Eve thought they could know good and evil for themselves, and
look what it got them. Look what it got
us. Sin.
Rebellion against God.
Death. Hell. That is what Adam and Eve chose when they got
to do their will. And that is what our
will apart from the Spirit chooses, every time.
So when the Father says “no,” it is a good thing. He’s protecting us. He’s providing for us. He’s loving us. And we throw our temper tantrums, as children
do, and God disciplines us, as good fathers do.
Not punishment. Discipline. Teaching.
“Lord, teach us to pray.” And notice that the things Jesus teaches us
to pray are the opposite of things we choose on our own, apart from the
Spirit. Jesus teaches us to pray for the
hallowing of God’s Name, that we keep
His Name holy. To pray that His Kingdom come, not that we get to be
king. To pray for daily bread, for the
things we need for body and soul, not
for great wealth and possessions. To
pray for the forgiveness of sins, which is a confession that we are not worthy
of things for which we pray, and to commit ourselves likewise to
forgiving. And to pray for defense
against temptation, defense against the very things after which our flesh runs
with reckless abandon. We’re praying
against ourselves in the Lord’s Prayer, against our old sinful nature, and for
ourselves as the new creation in Christ that daily emerges from the baptismal
water to live before God in Jesus, and in the Spirit. Luke, by the way, gives us the short version
of this prayer. For the full version,
you’ll have to look in Matthew. But notice
how whichever version you’re looking at, it includes everything God promises in
Scripture. That is why we don’t have to
pray it with conditions, like “if it be Thy will.” The petitions are terse. Demanding, even. But we pray them confidently, because these
are the Words Jesus has given us to say to the Father. And there is the Promise: He loves to hear
it. He will answer. To this prayer, His answer is always and
unequivocally “Yes!” Just ask, seek,
knock. You will always receive, find,
and enter the Kingdom through the open door that is Christ Himself.

And
what about our other prayers? I’ve been
with several of you this week who are going through some pretty tough
things. We’ve prayed, as our Lord
commands, and we know He has heard our prayer, as He promises. Some of the things we’ve asked, He has not
given. What does this mean? What are we to do with that? Does this mean God is against us? Has He actually, for the first time in all
eternity, failed to act for our good? Our Lord’s prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane
is instructive here. He prayed, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup
from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done” (Luke 22:42). And what is the Father’s answer? … The cross is the Father’s answer. He does not take the cup from His Son. Jesus must drink the cup of God’s wrath for
our sin down to its very dregs. It is
God’s will. God was against Jesus on Golgotha, His own beloved Son. He was against Jesus who bore our sin, our
rebellion, our will so stubbornly opposed to His own. He was against Jesus in order to be for us.
And see, look what good God accomplished by bringing the ultimate evil
upon His Son. The cross was not some
sadistic and arbitrary act for God. It
served a purpose; namely, the forgiveness of sins for the whole world and the
salvation of all who believe it. And
even Jesus Christ, the Son of God, through His suffering and death has been
exalted. He did all this for the joy set
before Him, the joy of saving you and making you His own and bringing you into
His Kingdom. And He is risen from the
dead, ascended bodily into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of the
Father. There He rules all things. For you.
What great glory. And He’ll bring
you there to reign with Him. And He’ll
raise you bodily on the Last Day. That
is the good our Father accomplished by giving His Son into death on the cross.

And
if that is what He has done with Jesus’ cross, that is what He will do with the
crosses He lays on you. This call
situation is not what many of you wanted, and you will hurt and be sad, and so
will I. There are among you some dealing
with the death of a loved one or your own mortality. There are some dealing with other great pain
and loss. These things are crosses to be
borne in faith. Not for your salvation,
for that is complete in Jesus, but because God is working these things to Your
greater good. And like children, you
don’t understand the things your Father is doing. You experience them as bad, though your
Father knows they are good. He has given
them because He loves you. So what are
you to do when God lays a cross upon you?
Jesus teaches you what to do. He
gives you words to say. You are to
address God as “Father,” and pray the prayer the Son teaches you. And then you receive His answer right here in
the Means of Grace, in the Word of God and the Holy Sacrament. That is how God’s Name is hallowed. That is how His Kingdom comes. Here is the Bread of Life you really need,
the Body of the Lord. Here is the
forgiveness of sins and shelter against temptation. Here at the font. Here at the pulpit. Here at the altar. Here where Jesus is for you, here where your Father gives His Spirit. Your Father will give you a cross, but never
a serpent or a scorpion. Trust Him on
this. He is always working what is best
for you. He does all things well. In the Name of the Father, and of the Son
(+), and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.